[REVIEW] Collectible Minifigures Series 5

[hatcher]

Indexed

Name: Collectible Minifigures Series 5
Theme: Minifigures
Minifigures: 1 per package
Number of pieces: Depends on figure.
MSRP: $3.49 (CDN) $2.99 (USD)

Description from Shop@Home:
Collect every mystery minifigure in the hot new Series 5!

With 16 all-new, special minifigures in Series 5, you can grow your LEGO® minifigure collection instantly! Which one will you get when you open the mystery bag? Each minifigure comes in a sealed mystery bag, so you never know which minifigure you might get. Each character has its own special accessories, display plate and collector’s leaflet. Inspired by movies, sports, history and just everyday life, this collection includes: Fitness Instructor, Lizard Man, Lumberjack, Gladiator, Small Clown, Egyptian Queen, Evil Dwarf, Boxer, Ice Fisherman, Graduate, Royal Guard, Cave Woman, Detective, Snowboarder Guy, Zookeeper, and Gangster! Collect all 16!

Every minifigure comes with accessories and display plate
A must-have for LEGO® minifigure collectors
PLEASE NOTE: Only 1 of 16 individual minifigures in each “mystery” bag. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate requests for specific minifigures – and some minifigures may be more difficult to find than others. You may receive 2 or more of the same minifigures – trade with your friends to collect them all! A maximum of 16 minifigures may be ordered per address, per household.

Series 5 is finally here, and for all of us hopeless addicts, LEGO's latest set is only going to make things worse. Its starting to sound cliched at this point, but this series might be the best one yet!

Some general comments before beginning. The painted legs things is still happening, where they only paint the front and sides of the legs, but not the backs. For figures with shorts on, their bare leg shows up only on the front and sides, and then disappears on the back. Why go to the trouble of painting the back of the torso, if you aren't going to paint the back of the legs? It just bugs me for some reason. I also noticed that the legs and arms seemed looser on these guys then on previous sets. I don't know if that's just me, or if others have noticed that as well.

Well, enough blather, lets see some pictures!

The front and back of the individual packages. Series 5 is blue in colour, but otherwise identical to the previous series, showing a selection of possible figure options. I didn't even bother trying to find bump codes for this series, mainly because each figure has one or more easily distinguished parts that made identification very straightforward. Although, I did find that if you rush, you can easily mistake the gangsters violin case for the aerobics instructors boom box. You can easily verify gangster by finding his gun though, so that was a minor issue.

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Package contents. As per usual, you get a random minifigure, a display stand and a folded insert. This package had the zookeeper in it.

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The front of the insert showing the available figures.

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And the back of the insert.

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Now, on to the figures. First up, the zookeeper. She comes with a banana, and a monkey. The monkey has a hand sticking up that the zookeeper can grip (as shown) and he has a hand that appears would allow him to hang from a tree or something.

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The Lizard man. Another man in costume figure, this one is great. I've merged pictures of the front and back to show the awesomeness that is this figure. The tail is separate piece that fits over the neck, but has a large collar so that the head sits down into it, instead of on top of it. The human's eyes show through the mouth. I love this guy!

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The boxer. I've included another front and back shot here, as the boxer has two faces, a confident face, and "Oh no" face. The boxer is a perfect example of the not painting the back of the legs. Annoying. The boxer is interesting in that he doesn't have hands, the boxing gloves are not separate elements. Instead of hair, he has a head protector.

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The lumberjack. I love this guy. I mean, what's not to like. The baseball cap with a beaver on it, the flannel shirt, the axe. As a Canadian part of me thinks I should be offended by this for some reason, but I'm not. Finally an axe that isn't completely black. To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee "That's not an axe, THIS is an axe!" Again a front and back composite.

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The gangster, complete with violin case (which does open, but sadly has no machine gun inside) and pistol. Ever since we got the Shanghai Gangsters in the old Indiana Jones sets, I've been hoping for more Gangsters, and now we get them! Or at least him. I really like the front of the suit, and the hat is just pure win. Awesome!

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The aerobics instructor (or fitness instructor) comes with a boom box (pink of course). She looks remarkably like the pop singer from an earlier series. Not much else to say except my daughter wants one. Go figure.

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The graduate. While I like the mortar board hat he's wearing, the robes are not so good. They won't hang properly, they keep trying to stand straight up and the front and back. Maybe they'll hang better in time, but straight out of the pack like this, they wouldn't cooperate. He also comes with a diploma.

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The Evil Dwarf. How do you know he's evil? The eyes! Its hard to tell when he's fully assembled, but trust me, those eyes are evil! Pure evil! The dwarf is fantastic. It wasn't until I was cleaning up the opened packages that I realized his shield was missing (luckily I found it) so it isn't pictured. It has what appears to be a dragon face on it. He comes with helmet, axe, and shield.

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The Egyptian Queen. A companion for your Pharaoh and Mummy from earlier sets, the Egyptian Queen (oh come on, we all know its Cleopatra, she's holding a snake for crying out loud) has the skirt instead of pants, and she'd covered with bling. The hair piece is quite large, but looks great!

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The Cave Woman. Again, a front and back composite to highlight her back printing. The cave woman comes with a club, and a bone for her hair. The bone is removable. Can anyone say Wilma Flintstone?

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The British Guard. I've been to see the Changing of the guard (In Ottawa, not London, but its still pretty cool) and I must say they nailed this guy. The coat, the bear skin hat, even the facial expressions are bang on. A really excellent figure.

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The Ice Fisherman. I'll come right out and say it, this guy's outfit looks like that of an Inuit (aka Eskimo), but I guess we don't want to get into trouble for stereotyping. The hood is a new design, and it works well. The stitching on the coat and legs is a nice touch. I wonder how they'll include the fishing pole in subsequent lines.

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The short clown. I hate clowns, but this clown works. The pie is a nice touch. I do have to say though, when I opened the package, and that face was staring up at me, I was instantly reminded of Stephen King's IT. Tim Curry played the clown, and looked eerily like this guy.

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The Snowboarder guy. I found it interesting that the last snowboarder (a girl) wore a helmet, while this guy isn't. Strange since the boxer was wearing head protection. Nothing too exciting about this guy I'm afraid.

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The gladiator. Another kick butt figure. Here shown with helmet on, and off. What can I say, this figure is the bomb. The helmet is huge! And the holes in the face, I just can't describe how cool they look. And the sword he comes with, wow, I need at least a hundred of those swords. And I love the face they picked for this guy. This one is probably going to be the most sought after in this series.

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The Detective. Again, who are you trying to kid, its Sherlocke Holmes. He's wearing the hat for crying out loud! Anyway, a nice figure, it comes with magnifying glass (which is WAY too big, but what ever.)

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And the entire set of 16.

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Final thoughts. This series had it all. New, awesome accessories, four females (instead of just 3 like in previous sets) figures from a wide range of genres. There are no really bad figures, just figures that you personally might not care about (for me it was the snow boarder and Clown). MSRP held steady on this line, so we can only hope we don't see a jump for Series 6. I give this set a score of 9.5/10. Come on LEGO paint the legs correctly next time! Series 6 coming in January (I think).

[sadowsk1]

Nice review!

[anthonyj8]

Great rewiew hatcher

[vynsane]

The Snowboarder guy. I found it interesting that the last snowboarder (a girl) wore a helmet, while this guy isn't. Strange since the boxer was wearing head protection. Nothing too exciting about this guy I'm afraid.

She seemed to be more of a competitive snowboarder, while this guy seems like more a hobbyist. That's my explanation, anyway.

[Lumberjerk]

The lumberjack. I love this guy. I mean, what's not to like. The baseball cap with a beaver on it, the flannel shirt, the axe. As a Canadian part of me thinks I should be offended by this for some reason, but I'm not. Finally an axe that isn't completely black. To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee "That's not an axe, THIS is an axe!" Again a front and back composite.

Great review Hatcher :)

The Canadian part of you should actually be proud as the Lumberjack is based on a real Canadian. Notice his name is Kel? He definitely my favourite of the series ;)

Kel.

(There's some pretty awesome people working at LEGO)

[Linkage]

The Lumberjack is awesome, my favorite of the set. My poor son got three Cavewomen in a row - kind of turned him off front buying any more but I`m just Santa will hook him up with a few for Christmas.

[dr_spock]

Nice review. Now let's all sing the lumberjack song. :D

[Legobrandon]

Nice review. Now let's all sing the lumberjack song. :D

[hatcher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[anthonyj8]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg

Ha ha! Pretty hilarious!

[yeti79]

Nice review & I hate clowns too